Review Blitz III: General Chat & Hype Thread

[kintsugi]

Hey! Some people might've noticed already, but if you're curious about some prelim stats from Blitz this year, check out these new additions in the ladder! These will generate automatically during Blitz, so feel free to check back in and see what's up with your friends and your favorite stories.

Reviewer Stats - a breakdown of what was reviewed, and how often, sorted by reviewer. click here to see how many times you've written a review, what your most frequently visited story has been so far, etc.
Story Stats - a breakdown of who reviewed what, and how often, sorted by story. click here to see how many times your story's been reviewed, who your most popular Blitz readers have been so far, etc.

Keep up the good work, and keep your eyes peeled for my personal favorite movie, Tomorrow: Return of the Pie Charts 👀

 

[Namohysip]

Weekly fic rec

This week I want to give special mention to Negrek's In Ghostly Fashion.

It's a slice of life story that, because it's Pokemon, has a lot of supernatural elements to it that are sort of weaved into the way everyone regards the world as mundane. A giant bug handing you some clothes, an eldritch abomination hiding under the couch--classic monstrous tales that would terrify the average Earthling that's just normal life in the world of Pokemon. When it comes to slice of life in the Pokemon world, that's always what I'm looking for. Special bonus points also go to Negrek doing that thing I like where Pokemon are very intelligent animals, understanding but not fully understanding the humanity they live alongside, and vice versa. And, of course, as slice of life, it takes that fantasy vibe and puts it in a very relatable, down-to-earth conflict.

Some other stories I read:
Starfrost - A story almost entirely in dialogue.
Demons Have Wings, But So Do Angels - Vampire shipping but with Pokemon characters.
Stronger - A story almost entirely narration or semi-dialogue.
Groudon's Map, Except Groudon Is Purple - Still reeling from psychic damage. Certain anti-jokes are too powerful to comprehend.
Hey, Kyogre! - Trust me just read it it's like not even 2k words.
Abandoned, Worthy, and Liberation - A triple-oneshot following the same character at different key times in his life. They're loosely associated, but are worth reading as a set.

 

[Ambyssin]

a rec b/c i sure ain't winning any raffles

@Shiny Phantump 's Dark-Clothed Small Human, which is about the goodest boi™ in all of Pokémon. It's a xeno/poké POV where the lone POV character has an interesting mix of childlike, organic innocence that contrasts with some of the data-driven, mechanical knowledge interspersed throughout to remind you that, yes, you're dealing with a machine and a synthetic creation. Null's fascination with things in the outside world make for an absolutely adorable piece that left me wanting more.

 

[unrepentantAuthor]

Week 2 Fic Rec:
Dragonfree's newly-revised oneshot, Butterfree, is a lovely little piece I feel very attached to. I first read any version of it as a kid many years ago, and have beta-read for two revisions. It's a very-well polished piece by now! The premise is that a trainer whose favourite 'mon in their team is a butterfree is explaining the whole of their relationship to the cute li'l bug in the context of having... drifted apart from them, shall we say? I don't wish to spoil it, but it's a good fic for tugging at the heartstrings while still having very positive vibes. I find it charming, heartbreaking, and heartwarming, and I'm sure you will too.

 

[kyeugh]

weekly fic rec - krookodile tears

Pokémon - krookodile tears [threeshot]

“When the world was younger than you are now, a great tragedy befell the desert, and the krookodile wept. Listen and learn, child, from the Two who warred for the Dragonmother’s heart.” // It’s easier to excuse when it could never happen to you.

forums.thousandroads.net

i have been thinking about this story non-stop since i reviewed it. the story so far is, naturally, deeply impactful and heart-wrenching in the say that kintsugi always seems to manage, and there's some lovely mythology in there, but i'll leave that part for you to discover on your own when you read it! what truly pushed this story over the top and made it so memorable for me was the absolutely gorgeous imagery. excellent, evocative descriptions of the natural environment and—without giving away too much—some pokémon just being fucking cool. the spectacle that i live for tbh. would recommend. plus it's in the desert so, um, this is like litcherally dune.

 

[IFBench]

Hey, you! Yeah, you!

Do you like PMD? How about Unova? Do you like post-apocalypse stories? Do you like stories about mankind's hubris?

Then I implore you to read Quenched Torch by @Sudmensch!

Featuring:
- A (sorta) silent protagonist! (Real talk: This character is my favorite character from anything ever, fanfiction or not.)
- Moral dilemmas!
- The ruins of the mainline world, and the Pokemon that have tried to uphold its legacy.
- An anxious gecko who needs lots and lots of hugs.
- A ton of fantastic mystery and intrigue!

Seriously, this story is so good. It's my second favorite Pokemon fanfic ever. Its prose is fantastic, its characters are extremely charming and great, and the story itself is just wonderful.

It's also received criminally low amounts of attention on the forums, so it's completely eligible for week 3, the whole way through from start to finish.

So go ahead! Read Quenched Torch today!

 

[windskull]

Week 2's Fic Rec: Pizza with a Slice of Pain by Zion of Arcadia

This story follows Eloise, a human-turned- furret with confidence problems who just wants to make pizza like her family taught her, and the dashing Raine Wiffletwist, a "human turned grimsnarl" who's in want of a prison break, and their unlikely friendship. The dungeon that imprisons them is happy to provide them with a challenge. As one might imagine from that summary, shenanigans insue. This oneshot is hilarious and full of absurdist humor that had me laughing my way to work. It's utterly charming and I found the friendship between Eloise and Rain oddly heartwarming. I'd highly recommend it to anyone who needs something to brighten up their day.

Honerable Mentions Don't make me choose I found so much good stuff this week: Delivery Deferred by UnrepentantAuthor and In Ghostly Fashion by Negrek

 

[Negrek]

Welcome to Week 3, everyone! As I did last year, I thought I'd put together a list of recent stories that are eligible for the weekly theme to make it easier for people to plan their reviewing. Note that this lists includes only stories posted since the beginning of November 2021, and only stories where ALL chapters are eligible for the theme, so you don't have to worry about accidentally reviewing a chapter that's actually been hit a number of times before. There's 34 stories here, so I hope you'll be able to find one or two to enjoy! One-shots are marked with an asterisk to help you figure out what you might have the time/interest to read.

* 風雨 (Wind and Rain)
A Brother's Merit
* A Good Year to Rawr
* A Homemade Hoenn Christmas
* A Night in Kanto
* Abandoned
* Alternate Title (Alternate Champion)
* Beyond Rescue
* But How Will it Be
* Champion at Last
* Dark Winter Night
* Demons have wings, but so do angels
* Dragonspiral's Children (redux)
* The Gift of Giving
* Giovanni, At Last, We See Each Other Plain
* The Guzmania Blooms
* Hell Eternal
* Hitmontop Saves the Day
* I Love You; I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do
I'm a Marionette
* In the echo of the ocean/In the hunting of the wind
* Liberation
Luceat Lux Vestra
Origin
Pokémon Fate
Pokémon: Heroes and Villains
* Restarting
Rosa's Renaissance
* Shining Pearl Snippers
Stray
* Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
* The Twins
* You were only waiting for this moment to be free
* You Wouldn't Steal a Car (but Volkner would)
* Worthy

Of course there are a lot of great stories out there that were posted before the November cutoff that could use some love, as well as stories with a scattered chapter or two that are eligible amongst those that aren't. If you've got any stories/chapters that are eligible, make sure you let people know, because this week's theme can be a bit tedious for people to scope out by themselves!

 

[bluesidra]

weekly fic rec - kumane

This emotional juggernaught is the bittersweet (well, mostly bitter) tale about a man dealing with some serious grief. Depression takes on a face and voice, and it's not the berating stuff we all hear everyday from our brain gremlins. This is your only friend, and your oldest and your best friend. This is the disease that knows you so well, like nobody else ever will. It loves and cares for you. And it tries to kill you.
And just like with real depression, the protagonist ultimately has to face it alone.

I really loved it, even though I cried a river. Found a lot of myself in there, and a lot of things I couldn't argue away. And the story never expects these things to be clear.

Please go read it, whenever you're in the mindset for it. You'll cry along Alola's sunny coast and stormy seas.

---

Aaaand now for some self-promo: everything from chapter 5 onwards in 26y is eligible for week 3's theme ❤️

 

[love]

Beyond Rescue is eligible for week 3, as Negrek's list establishes, but so are chapters 8–13 of Those Who Will Inherit the Earth. The whole novella is about 30k words. Both stories are fairly intense, pmd-flavored, and contain themes of environmentalism.

(Also, I Walk through Your Dreams and Invent the Future. by zion)

 

[slamdunkrai]

Did not get much reading done this week, but my rec is Butterfree! I thought this was an excellent story about growing up, accepting and trying to mend the mistakes of the past, fixing wrongs made with old friends, and ultimately working towards a healthier relationship with people you mistreated, as told through a trainer and their big old wonderful bug friend. It also went to some interesting areas I don't often see explored in fic, such as the inherent sadness (and in this case, horror!) of those early-game pokémon who kick ass while the rest of your team is still growing, but ultimately end up getting cast to the side and boxed. I liked how much this fic acknowledged that parting ways is an option between trainer and pokémon; it makes that bittersweetness all the more resounding — the protag's refusal to do this led to genuine pain for their friend; Butterfree's determination to mend things — as both parties look to make this a healthier arrangement (and, in the process, improve themselves) — makes the ending feel all the more earned and triumphant. Great, great stuff.

As for week three: HSC chapters 3-6 qualify for the theme. If you haven't already read chapters one and two, and you decide you wanna do so this week, you will still have my undying loyalty in battle anyway (though you may have to wait until week 4 to get a bonus that reflects this). :V

 

[kintsugi]

Hi lovelies! I was a little busy last week, but as tradition, here's some pictures to cover many thousand words: Blitz represented with FACTS and LOGIC and also very pretty colors

(As a general note, the labels on the pie charts are a little hard to read this year--a downside of having so much activity is that the wedges get real smol. I'm not able to locally embed an interactive version of each chart, but if you click on it, it'll take you to a version with hover/interactivity. Science!)

---

So in the past two weeks there have been 415 reviews written, across 815 chapters. wowow. Honestly I don't think we need pictures to illustrate how crazy of an accomplishment that is, but if I acknowledge that I'm out of a job, so here we are.

Just where were those 815 chapters being read? It's a pretty diverse bunch actually; Blitz has taken readers across a whirlwind tour of 137 unique stories, and people have definitely been trying out new things!


Absolutely bonkers lol. Definitely click on that one if you aren't going to click on anyone else; it's a lot of fun to see what fics have been discovered (or rediscovered).

But who's been doing the actual reviewing? With 37 participants so far, we've been having a solid crack at things! Familiar faces and a lot of newcomers have been popping up, and whether you're on the prowl for the top spot or just trying to play some catch up on fics you love, there's been a ton of activity as well! Here's a breakdown of how many chapters folks have been reading:

And here's a similar graph, but grouping users by their word count so far! Get those half-NaNo's in if you're trying to be STRONK:

(as a community we've written 364,068 in the past 2 weeks, which, wow. One of my favorite activities has been trying to read all the new reviews as they come in and admittedly that's no longer possible! This event has truly outgrown me lol.)

Speaking of NaNo, here's that wordcount in time-form--that's an average of 26,004 words per day.

And just to round things out, here's the chapters/review counts at the end of each day. With ~30 reviews written and ~58 chapters read per day, these numbers have been steadily climbing higher.

---

So what next? How are your goals doing? What's your secret weapon for undiscovered fics in week 3? What new meme have you made about that chapter you've just read? What story touched your heart last week? The open road lies ahead.

Looking for week 3 recs? Check the masterlist in this post by Negrek, or any of the other recs in this thread.
Looking to put your fate in the heart of the cards? Stop by the bingo thread and put your destiny in Walrein's hands.

Most importantly, have fun, be kind to one another, and be proud of yourselves. You guys have been doing great!

In closing:

here is a turtle biting off more than they can chew. maybe the turtle is you and me. maybe not. strawberries are delicious.

 

[Ambyssin]

Strawberries are, indeed, delicious. I believe in the turtle.

 

[IFBench]

Hey, you!

Do you like PMD? Do you like detective noirs? Do you like stories with two worlds, where both worlds are relevant and important? Do you like snow-covered landscapes?

Then read PMD: Into the Dark by @SilverPhoenix!

Featuring:
- Hybrid Pokemon, and Pokemon with unusual typings!
- A story told across two worlds!
- Horrible people on Team Plasma!
- Characters you'll want to simultaneously give hugs to and run away from really fast!
- And more!

This fic is criminally lacking in love, so it's completely eligible for the week 3 theme! Go and give it a visit, and leave a review while you're at it! And the author's birthday is this week, so why not leave a review as a birthday present?

 

[Spiteful Murkrow]

Getting in my Week 2 postmortem recs, with the main standouts I read that aren't called Overlord (which you should read, mind you, but I already shilled it once not long ago and will be devoting attention elsewhere for this shilling post) :

Stronger - a one-shot about Mewtwo's first night after escaping Cinnabar Mansion, in which the big psychic kitty has a big axe to grind against the world. A much bigger world that's not at all what it imagined, but surely that is no matter for a being built to win against anything and everything, right?

Pitch Meeting: Pokemon Mystery Dungeon - a short imagined back-and-forth between a Chunsoft dev and a desk jockey at TPCI in which the roguelike series of cartoon animals we all know and love gets pitched for the first time in a completely off-the-wall fashion that takes the piss out of the Rescue Team games. Unconventional format, but highly recommended if you need something light to give you a giggle.

And onto the topic of self-shilling, all of my stories have some portion of their runs eligible for the Week 3 bonus if you need to make your points go brrr, with the below caveats:

Dragonspiral's Children - None. It's about 8300 words long in total at the moment and both chapters are eligible for the Week 3 bonus. I'm presently planning on getting the third installment out in the tail end of Week 4, it's just going through some final feedback and editing.

Context Switch - None. All 6 chapters are eligible, and the entire story is only about 16k words long if you need something short and sweet to rack those points up with. Also, it's the only story I know of that deals with Game Freak being Game Freak in Pokéworld.

Fledglings - From a spot check, everything from Chapters 8-21 and past Chapter 23 should be eligible for the Week 3 bonus. Yeah, it's long. But it also has best birb, so if you were looking for an excuse to catch up, now's as good of one as any.

[NO AUDIO] - None. Might as well be called "No Reviews" since nobody's left one yet. It's not a terribly long piece styled after surveillance footage that clocks in at 6300 words if you want to change that and give a more experimental story a gander, though. :V

Once a Thief - Everything other than the Prologue qualifies for the Week 3 bonus. So if you wanted to catch up with some PMD Outlaws being sticky-pawed, it's as good an opportunity as any.

 

[Negrek]

So what next? How are your goals doing? What's your secret weapon for undiscovered fics in week 3? What new meme have you made about that chapter you've just read? What story touched your heart last week? The open road lies ahead.

Mmm, week three plans... I still have nine one-shots from W2 that I didn't get to but wanted to. Some of them are eligible for the W3 bonus, and some of them aren't... It would be lovely to get those that qualify done squared away this week! The others should work for W4.

This week I'd like to actually buckle down and get to work on those stories I said I was intending to catch up with in the beginning. Some of them are eligible for the theme, and some aren't! I should definitely be able to knock out the rest of my Places We Call Home reviews this week, then Hey, Space Cadet! Hoping to at least start my reviews of White Swan, Black Swan this week, which would then leave W4 for Dragon's Dance and Eternal Shadows. Going to focus on getting a review for the "target" fic in each day, then optionally one for another story on the list or one that qualifies for the weekly theme. That's a lot, so we'll see how it goes!

 

[Spiteful Murkrow]

Weekly Fic Rec!

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Path of Valor by Ambyssin

A more nonstandard PMD story in which Yuna, the Dreepy Princess of the Aeon Kingdom gets shuffled off to a prestigious academy in the Kingdom of Radiance as a gesture of goodwill as her home and host lands attempt to negotiate a treaty in the face of a growing existential crisis that threatens to envelop the whole of their world of Etherium.

Along the way, Yuna stumbles into political intrigue both in the present day and from ages long past, portals to strange realms, and discovers that she and her small band of... companions(?) represent the last line, the last bastion in the face of a lurking threat that threatens to quite literally swallow their world whole... if they can just survive life at school first.

Has a zany atmosphere that is at times humorous, at times sober, but never boring. A cast full of memorable characters, some lovable, some a bit less so. It's also the best example I've seen in some time of a story getting a lot done with a compressed wordcount. Oh, and Final Fantasy references. Lots and lots of Final Fantasy references and FF7/8-styled science fantasy settings if you're into that sort of thing.

Been sandbagging recommending this one until I could write a proper review, but not for lack of want. Also, if my memory serves me right, everything from around Chapter 14 or 15 onwards has sufficiently few reviews to qualify for the Week 3 theme. Perfect if you wanted an excuse to catch up with this story in the last two weeks of Review Blitz.

 

[IFBench]

Hey, you! Yeah, you right there, in front of the screen!

Do you like legendaries? How about PMD? Do you think there should be more fics starring Bidoofs? Do you like having protagonists be complete disasters? Literally?

Then read Legends Legacy by @BlackHairedPsycho!

Featuring:
- Team Disaster, the world's most dangerous group of not fully evolved Pokemon, who still try their best to help.
- Very concerned Bidoofs.
- The world's largest mystery dungeon.
- Legendaries, their legacies, and how they shape the world.
- Griza.
- A certain psychic cat finding their place in the world.

A story about family, friends, found family, and the crushing weight of legacy, Legends Legacy is a must-read for any fan of legendaries, even if they aren't very relevant until quite a few chapters in. Its gripping prose is sure to keep you settled in for a fun ride.

Everything beyond chapter 1 has less than 3 reviews, so chapter 2 onwards is fair game for week 3's theme!

 

[Dragonfree]

Going to throw in a couple of recs here for some completed short chapterfics that are eligible for week three and need some love:

Foregone Conclusion by elyvorg
Do you, like me, like to have your heart torn out by fiction? Then do yourself a favor and read this story about how an ancient alternate Grovyle evolution went extinct. It's a heavy one, dealing with an organized genocide, but it's not a political story - it's just about characters dealing with the ongoing reality of it in their own different ways and how it tears everything apart, for everyone. Supporting it all is lovely writing, some fascinating Pokémon POV worldbuilding, a very good fakemon, and Tefiren, a character who is both fascinating and just really fun to read about. It's about 75k words total, and only chapter four onwards are eligible this week, but it's well worth it to read the whole thing.

Context Switch by Spiteful Murkrow
An incredibly cute, unique story about the fictional Game Freak parallel within the Pokémon world staying at the Lilycove Hotel, working on their popular third-generation Capsule Monsters games. Part actual nuggets about the development of the real-life Pokémon games, part insight into the daily life of a programmer, part tongue-in-cheek game references, and part adorable Pokémon shenanigans, it's just really charming and fun and an easy, heartwarming read, and you've never read anything like it before. (It's also a zero violence, no content warnings sort of story, if you've been needing one of those!) All six chapters are eligible for week three and conveniently make for exactly two of those tasty three-chapter extra point chunks.

 

[Nubushi]

Looking for week 3 recs? Check the masterlist in this post by Negrek, or any of the other recs in this thread.

*Negrek lists week 3 bonus-point-eligible fics*

*It's super effective!*

So, I am really grateful and also feel kind of bad that I have now received more reviews from people than I have reviewed this time around. Though, last year was sort of the opposite, I guess it balances out? I'd still like to do some more reviewing, I've just had some work and personal life craziness all happening at the same time. Maybe over the long weekend I can squeeze in a few.

here is a turtle biting off more than they can chew. maybe the turtle is you and me. maybe not. strawberries are delicious.

The turtle is me. Strawberries are delicious. So is Review Blitz. . . . ?

*wanders off trailing Slowpoke vibes*